Wild Barbaree- Grover (ME) 1941; REC Lomax
[Grover's version had the American Songster ending verse. See: Coast of Barbary-Broadside (NY) c. 1840 Cozzen in my collection.
R. Matteson 2014]
AFS L21 ANGLO-AMERICAN SONGS AND BALLADS
From the Archive of Folk Song Edited by Duncan Emrich
B1-THE WILD BARBAREE. Sung by Mrs. Carrie Grover of Gorham, Maine, at Washington, D. C., 1941. Recorded by Alan
Lomax.
This song is based upon the Child ballad (285) of "The George Aloe and the Sweepstake" which describes an early encounter between the French and English. The early ballad seems apparently to have been revived when the piratical forays along the Algerian coast brought special meaning to the "coast of Barbary" in the late eighteenth century. The Prince of Wales was built in 1794 in England. The transmission to this country of a sea song was not unusual, but in this instance may have been stimulated by the fact that Stephen Decatur in 1815 decisively defeated Algerian pirates on the "coast of the wild Barbaree." The song was traditionally popular in the American navy and several texts have been recovered from Maine, where it was known to Mrs. Grover's father who sailed from Maine ports as a youth in the last century.
1. Two lofty ships of Eng-e-land set sail,
Blow high, blow low, and so sailed we,
And one was Prince of Luther and the other Prince of Wales,
Cruising down round the coast of the wild Barbaree.
2. "Look ahead, look astern, look to wind'ard and to lee,"
Blow high, blow low, and so sailed we,
"There's a lofty ship astern and for us she does make way,"
Cruising down round the coast of the wild Barbaree.
3. "Oh, hail her, oh, hail her," our gallant captain cries,
"Are you a man-o'-war or a privateer?" said he.
4. "I am neither man-o'-war or a privateer," said he,
"But I am a saucy pirate a-seeking for my fee."
5. Then for broadside for broadside these two ships did go,
Till at length the Prince of Luther shot the pirate's mast away.
6. Then for quarter, for quarter the pirate captain cried,
But the quarter that we gave them was to sink them in the' sea.
7. Oh, we fought them for better than three hours as you see,
But their ship it was their coffin and their grave it was the sea.